Of one of the greatest trades in White Sox history (just in my opinion)

Sent Rowand to Phillie and got future Hall Of Famer Jim Thome. I hated to lose Rowand but this deal was too good to pass up. I don't know if I've ever been as excited to be a fan as I was during that offseason. Coming off the WS Title our 3-4-5 was set up to be Thome, Dye, Konerko...ahh what might have been.

Nevertheless that 2006 team was super fun to watch on offense. Almost hard to believe a White Sox team could score with such ease.

This is hardly something to celebrate an anniversary of. What good did this do the team?

Just saying that at the time when the trade was made I don't think I've ever been as optimistic. We had just won a world championship and a month later we were actually better. Plus the fact we got Thome for Rowand is still kind of mind-boggling to me.

"I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours. No matter what. Anything a minute on either side of that and you're on your own. I don't sit in while you're running it down. I don't carry a gun. I drive."

Not to diminish Thome's accomplishments with the Sox, but there were plenty of other power bats available that offseason, ones that were less than 35 years old, could field a position and weren't one-dimensional hitters, but then again the Phillies weren't paying us $22M for three years (half the contract) for those guys.

To me the real question is would the Sox have paid Rowand when he hit free agency after 2007? And would they have come close to the $9.6M the Giants paid him?

Also, Brian Anderson was a league minimum player. This move was more about money more than baseball. Yes, the Sox had their highest payroll in 2006, but this cut a pretty large corner.

I also agree that our pitching collapsing after working a postseason the year before is the primary reason we missed the playoffs in 2006, but this couldn't have helped.

The only part of that trade that was poor was losing Gio. This is all hindsight. Thome was a monster and was great. Rowand was, well, not very good, very Rowandish.

Thome did not cause the White Sox to become station-to-station. The middle of the order does not do that. The 6-7-8-9 hitters do that. Guys like Crede, AJ etc.

That said, the reason the White Sox missed the playoffs in 2006 was pitching, still is pitching, and will always be pitching. Buehrle and Contreras ran out of gas. If they don't suck down the stretch, we are back in the playoffs.

The biggest thing people always forget about this trade, had we kept Rowand and Thomas, Konerko signs in LA. He said that, he said he was ready to leave UNTIL the Sox got Thome.

Not to diminish Thome's accomplishments with the Sox, but there were plenty of other power bats available that offseason, ones that were less than 35 years old, could field a position and weren't one-dimensional hitters, but then again the Phillies weren't paying us $22M for three years (half the contract) for those guys.

There really wasn't much on the FA market that offseason which is why the Sox went the trade route. The only free agent left handed power bat capable of hitting over 20HRs that year was Jeromy Burnitz and that is a pretty steep drop off from Thome. Here is the complete list of FAs at the conclusion of 2005: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2206376

Quote:

Originally Posted by russ99

To me the real question is would the Sox have paid Rowand when he hit free agency after 2007? And would they have come close to the $9.6M the Giants paid him?

Rowand got 5 years and $60 million from the Giants. No way would the Sox have come close to paying him that and rightfully so. (The Sox did kick the tires on Rowand when he became a free agent after his season in Philly and took a pass when they heard the asking price) The Giants took a bath on the back end of that Rowand contract as he started to decline in a hurry and became a really expensive 4th outfielder for them.

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Rowand got 5 years and $60 million from the Giants. No way would the Sox have come close to paying him that and rightfully so. (The Sox did kick the tires on Rowand when he became a free agent after his season in Philly and took a pass when they heard the asking price) The Giants took a bath on the back end of that Rowand contract as he started to decline in a hurry and became a really expensive 4th outfielder for them.

The Giants overpaid Rowand, no question, but the decline wasn't all that quick. Rowand was in his third year with the Giants in 2010 and was leading off. He had been an everyday player in his first two seasons, although he didn't have the All-Star season he had in his free agent year in Philadelphia. He actually got off to a great start in 2010, but in a late April game against the Dodgers, he was hit in the face by a Padilla pitch in a 10-8 loss, sidelining him for two weeks. When he came back, he was having trouble making consistent contact, striking out enough that Andres Torres ended up taking his place as the everyday centerfielder and leadoff man, relegating Rowand to the fourth outfielder role, although he did start the clinching game of the World Series against the overmatched Rangers and for the second time in five years was in center in Texas for the last out of the major league baseball season.

Rowand was mostly a fourth outfielder in 2011, although Torres faltered, and was unhappy with his lack of playing time. In an interview with a Chicago newspaper, he said he had been very happy with the White Sox. The interview wasn't taken well in San Francisco, and it seemed to be the final nail in his coffin.

In defense of the Giants releasing him and eating his contract, Rowand never played with another professeional team after the Giants.

Thome provided more offense than Rowand would have for the Sox in 2006. The story is that Konerko re-signed after 2005 because the Sox signed Thome. The problem for the Sox in 2006, though, was the pitching, particularly late in the season.

The real history changer is the Giants offering Rowand so much more than he was worth when it appeared he was going to sign with the Sox after his All-Star season in Philadelphia. Unable to sign Torii Hunter and then Rowand, the Sox traded for Nick Swisher.